Nina Hartley

Nina Hartley
Marie Louise Hartman (born March 11, 1959), known professionally as Nina Hartley, is an American pornographic film actress and sex educator. By 2017 she had appeared in more than one thousand adult films. She has been described by Las Vegas Weekly as an "outspoken feminist" and "advocate for sexual freedom", and by CNBC as "a legend in the adult world".
Early life and education
Hartley was born on March 11, 1959, in Berkeley, California, to a Lutheran father, Louis Hartman, and a Jewish mother, Blanche Hartman (née Gelders),
Her grandfather was a University of Alabama physics professor who was a Communist Party USA (CPUSA) party member in the 1930s.
Hartley's parents were members of the CPUSA who converted to Buddhism when she was young.
Her father was blacklisted in 1957 for his communist beliefs.
Hartley grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and as a teenager self-identified as a feminist, influenced by the slogan "my body, my rules".
After graduating from Berkeley High School in 1977, she attended San Francisco State University's undergraduate nursing school and graduated magna cum laude in 1985, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.
She was a registered nurse until her license expired in 1986.
Adult film career
Hartley sought a career in pornography as a way to make a living by having sex, later telling Las Vegas Weekly, "Porn gave me easy access to women without having to date them or have a relationship."
She writes that part of her reason for choosing sex work was to be able to indulge her exhibitionistic and voyeuristic streak.
She has said she chose her life's work when she saw the 1976 erotic film The Autobiography of a Flea alone at a theater in San Francisco.
In 1982, during her sophomore year of nursing school, she started working as a stripper at the Sutter Cinema and then the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre.
She told an interviewer that she chose the name "Nina" because it was easy for Japanese tourists to say during the time she was a dancer in San Francisco, and "Hartley" because it was close to her own last name, and she "wanted a name that sounded like that of a real person."
Her pornographic film debut was in Educating Nina (1984), where she was cast and directed by fellow performer Juliet Anderson.
For many years, she toured the United States and Canada as a stripper and made personal appearances at sex shops.
In 2013 she described her father's reaction upon learning about her occupation:
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Hartley starred in several of the Debbie Does Dallas film series spin-offs such as Debbie Duz Dishes (1986) and Debbie Does Wall Street (1991).
In 1992, she directed her first movie, Nina Hartley's Book of Love.
She also produced and starred in a series of sex education videos for Adam & Eve.
In 1994, she began her line of instructional videos marketed under the Nina Hartley's Guide brand.
Hartley played the part of Hillary Clinton in the 2008 satirical pornographic film Who's Nailin' Paylin?, with Lisa Ann in the role of Sarah Palin.
Hartley was still actively performing, and by 2017 she had appeared in more than one thousand pornographic films.
She has been described by news outlets as "one of the best-known actresses in the industry" and "a legend in the adult world".
Mainstream media appearances
Hartley acted in the 1996 Canadian film Bubbles Galore and has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
In the 1997 film Boogie Nights, she played William H. Macy's character's serially unfaithful wife who is murdered.
She later remarked, "The only movie I ever died in for having sex was a mainstream movie."
Hartley has appeared in several documentary films: she was interviewed in The Naked Feminist (2003) was featured in After Porn Ends (2012), and appears in Sticky: A (Self) Love Story (2016), in which she discusses masturbation with regards to education, the forced resignation of Joycelyn Elders, and her opinions on the blackballing of comedian Paul Reubens after his arrest for masturbating in a public theater.
Activism
Las Vegas Weekly has described Hartley as an "outspoken feminist, sex educator and advocate for sexual freedom" and "a guiding force for a generation of feminist porn stars".
Describing herself as a "classical liberal feminist", Hartley began engaging in feminist activism in the 1980s. Regarding her understanding of feminism, she has said:
Hartley has also been involved in socialist activism and has long been affiliated with the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee (APAC), a labor union founded in 2014 for pornographic film actors.
Politically, Hartley describes herself as a democratic socialist, saying, "There are some things the federal government is essential for and some things best left to local government."
Hartley was elected to the board of the Free Speech Coalition in 1995, and is a long-time board member of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation (founded in 2003).
She has made frequent appearances at academic conferences, workshops, and in the media to promote sex positivity.
She has given lectures at Dartmouth College, Harvard University, and the University of California.
Writing
In 2006, Hartley co-authored Nina Hartley's Guide to Total Sex with her husband Ira Levine. The book includes sections on sex toys, swinging, threesomes, dominance and submission, and erotic spanking.
Library Journal called the book a "well-written guide" that is "strong on both safe sex and a permissive approach", saying Hartley "handles the material frankly, accurately, and with sensitivity".
Personal life
Hartley is a self-described bisexual, swinger, and exhibitionist.
For two decades until the early 2000s, she was involved in a three-way relationship with her first husbanda former Students for a Democratic Society leaderand a woman.
She married her male partner in 1986; their divorce was finalized in 2003.
The same year, Hartley married Ira Levine, a director of porn films under the name Ernest Greene.
They are openly polyamorous.
Publications
"Reflections of a Feminist Porn Star" (1993). In
(1994). In
(1997). In
With
With
"Porn: An Effective Vehicle for Sexual Role Modeling and Education" (2013). In
(2015). In
Awards
AVN Awards
Hartley has received eight Adult Video News Awards, including:
XRCO Awards
Hartley has won a number of XRCO Awards:
Other awards
See also
Feminist views on pornography
References
Further reading
Features a chapter on Hartley
Features an essay and introduction by Hartley
Features a chapter on Hartley
Features an interview with Hartley
External links
1959 births
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Actresses from Berkeley, California
American female erotic dancers
American pornographic film directors
American women nurses
Jewish American actresses
American pornographic film actresses
American sex educators
American women film directors
Berkeley High School (Berkeley, California) alumni
Bisexual pornographic film actresses
Bisexual Jews
American LGBT film directors
LGBT people from California
Living people
Pornographic film actors from California
San Francisco State University alumni
Sex-positive feminists
Sex worker activists in the United States
Women pornographic film directors
Polyamorous people
American democratic socialists
American feminist writers
American bisexual actors
American bisexual writers